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Tiny-home movement booms, and Boulder leads the way

By Aimee Heckel

Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
01/25/2014 09:00:00 PM MST

Updated:
04/14/2014 01:37:33 PM MDT

Contractor Bryan Ruegg works to put the final touches on a tiny house being built by Lorna Kellogg on North Street in Boulder. Kellogg, who no longer lives in Boulder but towns property in town that she rents out, has built dozens of "tiny houses" over the years. Two of them are currently for sale. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera)

If you go

What: The documentary, "Tiny: A Story About Living Small," by Boulder's Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith. The 62-minute film produced by Speak Thunder Films follows the couple's attempt to build a 120-square-foot home with no construction experience, and touches on topics of sustainability, design and redefining the American Dream.

When: It will premiere at the Boulder International Film Festival at 10 a.m. Feb. 16 and will be screened at 7 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Denver Film Society's Sie FilmCenter, 2510 E. Colfax Ave., Denver

Christopher Smith lives in a house smaller than a parking space, between a chicken coop and some beehives in his friend's backyard.

And the Boulder County man wouldn't want it any other way.

He built his 120-square-foot house by hand, even though he had no construction background.

He didn't want a fat mortgage to pay off for the next 30 years, and neither did his girlfriend, Merete Mueller. They'd never dreamed of a McMansion; Smith's lifelong fantasy was a humble, simple life in the mountains, with a small roof over his head and the world as his living room.

"People seem to forget that there's a big world outside the front door of your home," Mueller says. "As Americans in suburban America, we spend a lot of time in our homes. But there are libraries, parks, sidewalks, cafes — a big world out there in the community. And small spaces encourage people to get out more."

Less truly did end up being more for Smith and Mueller. They captured their unconventional adventure on film and turned it into a documentary that has taken them around the country on a screening tour. Smith sleeps in his tiny home in his tiny bed when he's not on the road promoting "Tiny: A Story About Living Small."

Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith, of Boulder, stand in front of their 120-square-foot house. They created a documentary, "Tiny: A Story About Living Small," which will premiere on the Front Range at the Boulder International Film Festival on Feb. 16. (Kevin Hoth / Courtesy photo)

The film will premeire on the Front Range on Feb. 16 at the Boulder International Film Festival and Feb. 18 at the Starz Denver Film Center.

"Tiny" premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, last year. Since then, the film has garnered plenty of national attention and awards, including environmental and social change awards, and a spot in dozens of other film fests. Smith and Mueller have been speaking around the country, including a lecture last year at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

"Tiny" recently had its U.S. television premiere on Al Jazeera America, and a deal is in the works for DVD distribution.

The trend toward tiny

When Smith hammered the first nail in 2011, he knew of about 100 other tiny homes across the country.

Today, he's aware of thousands. There's a long and ever-growing list of blogs, magazines and books dedicated to tiny houses, and the websites alone see thousands of hits every day.

• "The Not So Big House," by Sarah Sushanka, is a book about a new way of thinking about what makes a home. She also published "Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live," which offers ways to apply not-so-big principles to your existing house, regardless of its size.

• "A Tiny Bit of Advice," by Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith, is an eBook that offers tips and advice for people who want to build their own tiny house. Download it for $9.99 at tiny-themovie.com/ebook

There's even a crop of building and design companies that specialize in tiny homes, such as the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company in Colorado Springs, Tiny Diamond Homes in Morrison and Clothesline Tiny Homes, which has ties to Loveland but a base in New Mexico.

TinyHouseListings.com is a real-estate website dedicated to homes under 200 square feet, and Boulder County has a strong presence there.

A 136-square-foot wooden home on Grant Avenue in Louisville is listed for less than $50,000 — well below the price of a typical residence in CNN's "best place to live" in 2011, where the median home price is $372,900, according to the U.S. Census.

The cost of living in Boulder County is one of the major draws of a tiny house, says Smith. So is the freedom. Some tiny houses are built on wheels to give residents the flexibility to easily relocate, and to get around building codes — although it's not that simple. A structure permanently affixed to a trailer in the city of Boulder is allowed and not subject to building codes — but a building on wheels in unincorporated Boulder County is not permitted, in part because of the effect of high winds.

In the city, a tiny home with a foundation requires a permit and must follow code: It must have electricity, running water and sewer services. And, although one can find a list of tiny homes in city limits with a simple Google search, Dave Thacker, the city's chief building official, says he's never seen a request for a permit. But he's never shut down a tiny home, either.

The cities of Lafayette and Erie also feature tiny homes for sale, and Smith featured a tiny home in Longmont in his documentary.

The city of Boulder has the biggest selection of tiny homes for sale, ranging from a 160-square-foot North Street residence for just $14,000 to a 200-square-foot, two-floor, solar-paneled cabin in the mountains for $65,000.

Compare this to the median value of an owner-occupied home in the city: $354,300.

Variety of uses

Lorna Kellogg, a former Boulder resident who now lives in Massachusetts, is selling the North Street tiny home, as well as another that she built as a hobby. She has built about 40 tiny homes across the country during the past 30 years, she says.

It all started when she was 14 and her dad brought her a "dollhouse," a 6-foot-tall shed that she used as her bedroom in her parents' California backyard. This was common in Santa Barbara during the '70s housing crunch.

"Now I build one behind every house I have bought, fixed up and resold," she says.

She says the $2,000 cost for basic materials and electricity could increase property values by $20,000 or more.

"It was very easy to get an extra room added to the house," she says.

Use it as a yoga room or art studio. Kellogg has used her tiny houses as an office for her coaching business or a guest room. Sometimes, she says, she prefers to live in the tiny house instead of the main residence.

"The quality of presence you're able to bring to your life and relationships is extraordinary," she says. "What happens is you only have what you genuinely need, and the sense of peace and freedom that accompanies that streamlined life is indescribable. ... When there's no clutter, your mind becomes very clear, and it's very easy to think."

The tiny-home movement has a deeper significance, says Smith's girlfriend, Mueller. The average size of a new house in America has nearly doubled since the 1950s, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

This is about redefining the American Dream to value quality over quantity.

As they filmed the documentary, Mueller says she began thinking about the meaning of home. Settling down versus staying adrift. Developing land or preserving it.

"Tiny houses are a really great extreme example of a lot of the questions that can be applied to slightly larger square footage," Mueller says. "It's about priorities. And it doesn't have to be 120 square feet or 89 square feet for you to think more about the bigger picture."

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